Hand-Craft Your Cocktail Hour: Apple-Ginger Whiskey Sour Recipe

Hand-Craft Your Cocktail Hour: Apple-Ginger Whiskey Sour Recipe

Fresh apple and ginger juice pays major rewards

When it comes to eating seasonally, most of us are familiar with the basics: tomatoes, peaches and corn should be eaten with gusto during the summer, while winter brings the starchy pleasures of potatoes, carrots and squash.

But here’s the thing: I like to drink seasonally, too. At the most elementary level, this means that when it’s hot and humid out, I turn to my clear spirit of choice — gin — and that through the long, cold nights of winter I reach for the brown stuff like whiskey. While light and lively gin pairs especially well with the bright flavors we crave during the summer, the thicker, more layered flavor of whiskey just seems more appropriate for the slow-sipping, outdoors-avoiding months between November and March.

A bourbon, served neat or on the rocks, is sometimes just the ticket on a chilly night. But when I feel like shaking up a cocktail, I like to stick with ingredients that complement whiskey’s caramel-laced intensity. One of my favorite winter cocktails is an apple-ginger whiskey sour made with light, floral fresh-pressed apple juice spiked with fiery fresh ginger. Yes, you’ll need a juicer to create this drink at home, but I assure you it’s worth investing: five seconds of work yields a subtly sweet, frothy and darned pretty drink that will tempt your friends to stay for just one more round before trudging home in the cold.

Fresh Apple-Ginger Whiskey SourServings: 1 cocktail

Ingredients:

2 ounces bourbon

1 ounce fresh apple juice from 1/2 a tart apple such as Granny Smith or Pink Lady, or use a high-quality bottled juice such as Red Jacket

Juice from a 1-inch piece of fresh ginger root

1/2 ounce fresh lemon juice

1/2 ounce simple syrup

1 egg white

Directions:

Combine all ingredients except egg white in a cocktail shaker and shake vigorously.

Add egg white and shake briefly to combine. Add a handful of ice, shake until frothy, then strain into a coupe. Serve immediately.